Meng's Travels: Lisboa

When I was in high-school studying European history, I learned about the great adventures of Portuguese sailors like Vasco da Gama. Portugal and Spain were the superpowers of the 15th and 16th centuries. Portuguese influence were all over Asia. Today you still some of the influence in Macau, China; Malacca, Malaysia; East Timor, Indonesia, India, etc. Portugal is the western-most country in Europe. It was settled by Romans in its early history, then by northern European settlers, who were conquered by the Muslim Moors of northern Africa and eventually reconquered by the Christian Crusaders.
Lisbon or Lisboa (as it's known in the local language) is the capital city of Portugal and is one of the oldest cities in Europe. You can see evidence of its past history in different parts of the city. An area of the city where you still see a lot of the Muslim influence is the Alfama area, where the streets are narrow and you see a lot of Moorish design in buildings. I took a walking tour of Lisbon and we walked through this very interesting area. Today you see a lot of immigrants, like Indians, living in this area. Many tourist take Tram No. 28 just to see the uniqueness of this area.
The city is very hilly. They have elevators to take residents who live up the hills. The trams also climb the hilly streets. This reminds me of the cable-cars and streets of San Francisco.
Another thing that is popular in this area are nightclubs playing Fado music. Fado is uniquely Portuguese. It's a kind of sad ballad sung by a Fado singer accompanied by someone playing a Portuguese guitar. Here is more information on Fado:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fado
I also took a 45-minute train ride west to the town of Sintra, where there are a few tourist sites. Two that I visited are the Moor Castle and the Palace. There are a couple of pictures below that show what they look like.
I enjoyed Portuguese food very much. It's not heavy or saucy. They have a lot of seafood on the menu. Understandably, since they are surrounded by the Atlantic ocean to the west and the Mediterranean sea to the south. They either grill or deep-fry their fish. The grilled fish, especially sardines, are very good. I had grilled grouper for lunch and it was one of the best fish I've ever had. It was fresh and tasty. They also serve a lot of squid or octopus and shell-fish.
Portugese wine is very good too, especially those from the northern part of Portugal. Over lunch, I sat next to someone who works for the Portuguese Railway and he was explaining to me all the goodness of Portuguese wine. They are also known for their port wine, which derived it's name from the city of Porto. We had planned to visit Porto but because we are running out of time and Porto being out of the way of most major train lines, decided to skip it.
From Lisbon, our plan is to head north towards Paris and return to Hamburg, Germany by June 25th. That is the last day of our Eurail pass. If we have time, we may squeeze in Brussels for a day or two.